A Giant Walked Among Us! RIP Freedom Fighter Alexander Solzhenitsyn!

From the 25 millions of Stalin’s victims rose Solzhenitsyn’s voice to speak for all victims of Communism. One of Humanity’s Giants, Rest In Peace Beautiful Old Man: You’ve accomplished you Mission. Rejoyce because today you are among Angels.

Solzhenitsyn, a Nobel laureate who won international fame by showing the world the horror of Soviet labor camps through his books, died of heart failure on Sunday aged 89.

Four Russian soldiers stood to attention at each corner of his coffin in the Russian Academy of Sciences, the hallmark of an official lying-in-state. A large portrait of Solzhenitsyn and a Russian flag completed the backdrop.

Outside the mammoth white building overlooking the River Moskva, a steady trickle of mainly elderly Russians shrugged off heavy rain to mourn their hero.

Solzhenitsyn’s widow Natalia and his sons looked on as mourners brought small bouquets of white or red flowers to lay before his coffin.

“Solzhenitsyn was one of the most important people in the history of Russia; he wrote exactly what he thought and needed to be remembered,” said maths professor Alexander Romanov, 60.

“It’s a shame that not all young people understand how important he is.”

At around 1 p.m. Putin, a former agent of the KGB security service that led the persecution campaign against Solzhenitsyn, strode into the hall flanked by burly security guards.